Lord Robathan

The Abingdon fence installation was competitively procured by both Houses of Parliament through parliament’s framework supply-chain and benchmarked against other fencing projects within Parliament. For security reasons, the Houses do not publish capital expenditure on security mitigating projects as providing this level of detail could enable an individual to infer the extent and nature of the works, and thus the vulnerabilities which they were intended to mitigate.

The Director of Security for Parliament is a bicameral role, but for administrative purposes is employed by the House of Commons. The salary of the Director of Security is published alongside other Commons Executive Board members in the annual accounts of the House of Commons. In 2023-24 the salary and benefits in kind of the Director of Security were £140-145,000.

The number of Government Car Service (GCS) vehicles allocated for Ministerial use on the 11th November for the specified years is:

1. 2016: 87

2. 2023: 114

3. 2024: 122

The Government takes national security extremely seriously and the Department works closely with the transport sector and other agencies such as the National Protective Security Authority and the National Cyber Security Centre to respond to any security vulnerabilities.  This includes ensuring critical infrastructure is secure and resilient, and risks are managed proportionately.

National collision statistics, which can record headlamp dazzle as a contributory factor, do not show any discernible trend to suggest that advances in lighting technology are contributing negatively to road vehicle collisions.

However, noting increased public concern, Government has commissioned independent research to better understand the root causes of headlamp glare and develop potential countermeasures. The work is underway and is due to deliver in summer 2025.

The Ministry of Defence takes the security of defence assets very seriously, and is working with other Government Departments to understand and mitigate any potential threats to national security from vehicles. Our policies and procedures take account of the potential threats from all types of vehicle, not just those manufactured in China, and we have issued appropriate internal direction to all drivers and passengers.

There are no centrally mandated policy restrictions on the movement of Chinese manufactured vehicles. We are aware that individual defence organisations may have stricter requirements relating to electric vehicles on some sites, but we do not provide specific details for security reasons.

The Government is considering what action may be appropriate to help birds reliant on buildings to breed, including how to drive up rates of swift brick installation in new build properties.

The Ministry of Justice publishes data on the number of prosecutions at criminal courts in England and Wales between 2010 and June 2024 in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly: June 2024.

However, prosecutions for vehicles illegally in cycle boxes (advanced stop lines) cannot be separately identified from the broader offence of ‘failing to comply with traffic lights, signals or signs’ in the Court Proceedings database.